


Freedom and the Tomb

by girlnamedlance



Category: Kamen Rider OOO
Genre: Alternate Universe - Human, Gen, Long Lost/Secret Relatives, Twins
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-05-01
Updated: 2015-05-01
Packaged: 2018-03-26 14:49:19
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,984
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/3854701
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/girlnamedlance/pseuds/girlnamedlance
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Ankh is adjusting to life with his new family but Shingo accidentally comes across some incriminating information that might mean he's up to his old tricks again.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Freedom and the Tomb

**Author's Note:**

  * Inspired by [Grave Robber and Detective](https://archiveofourown.org/works/3854644) by [girlnamedlance](https://archiveofourown.org/users/girlnamedlance/pseuds/girlnamedlance). 



> For the "locked in" square

It was by chance that Shingo found out that Ankh was up to his old tricks. He sent a message to Hina telling her to call Kougami and tell them where he was going.

He followed Ankh at a distance. Sure, he was incredibly stubborn, selfish, predatory, and just plain unusual. But he was still family.

Shingo watched him wait for the museum guard on patrol to pass, hop a fence, and climb in through a window that had already been left open. Shingo followed after him in a similar fashion. Ankh headed through an exhibit on some modern abstract art, through a corridor, and into one dedicated to the riches of ancient Chinese emperors.

Shingo ducked behind a display case of a mannequin wearing a magnificent set of Imperial robes. He had to see what was going on for himself before he decided whether to call in the police or not. Ankh was his responsibility, after all.

“So this was the game, huh?” Ankh called out into the main room. Had he spotted Shingo so quickly? How long had he known he was being followed? 

But someone else started talking. “Ankh, do you miss us that badly?” said a giggling woman.

“Hardly,” Ankh growled. They were speaking Japanese like natives, Shingo noticed. Maybe that had something to do with Ankh’s origins as well.

Shingo grew a little bolder and peeked out from behind his hiding place. There were four people standing in front of Ankh. One girl who couldn’t be much older than 17, and three men. One short in yellow plaid, another tall in a green biker jacket the likes of which Shingo had never seen before, and the third was a big bruiser in a grey sweater and a big bucket of candy under his arm from which he chained snacks, completely unconcerned with the confrontation going on.

“Best I can do is 10%,” said the guy in yellow with a smirk and a shrug.

Was he seriously bargaining his cut? “That’s bullshit and you know it,” Ankh spat. “But somehow, I’m not surprised.” 

Shingo had heard enough. “Hold it right there! Ankh!” he shouted as he stood.

Ankh whirled around with a look of panic Shingo had never seen before on his face. “Oh, looks like the offer just dissolved,” the guy in yellow said with a shrug. “You were supposed to come alone.”

“You idiot!” was all Ankh had time to fling at his twin before the group came at them to start swinging punches.

But Shingo putting himself between them and Ankh made them all stop in their tracks. “You’ll have to get through me first.” 

“That doesn’t look that hard,” answered the one in green.

“What are you doing? Get out of here!” Ankh protested.

“I’m protecting you. Both as a police officer, and as your brother.”

“Tche! What a stupid, pointless thing to do,” Ankh replied. Shingo had been smirking at him when Uva’s first punch made contact with his jaw.

The twins put up a good fight, but they were dramatically outmatched. Even the one in grey on his own would have been too much for them to handle. Ankh was doing more than his fair share of the offense, but he was constantly being undermined by keeping an eye on Shingo. Shingo had some of his officer’s training to fall back on, but this kind of thing was not his strongest quality.

What was, however, was his ability to pick out details in chaos. He saw the big one in grey line a huge wooden carving up like a club. He swung it up and down toward Ankh like it was a horrific round of whack-a-mole. Shingo put himself in the middle again. He’d tried to protect himself with his arms over his head, but it afforded him little protection. On impact his left arm shattered and he crumpled in a heap on the floor.

 

Shingo woke up again in a dimly-lit room, lined with shelves. It felt like a closet only just large enough to take a few steps into. “You’re alive,” came a voice. Shingo had to think hard for a moment to pick out the source.

“Ankh! What happened?” Shing started to push himself up off the floor. He chose the wrong arm to attempt this with. He cried out and writhed with pain.

“Don’t move, you moron,” Ankh told him. But there was no venom in it. He sounded dejected in ways Shingo had not yet seen.

Shingo stayed where he was, but looked over to see Ankh. He was sitting near the door, as far from Shingo as he could get in the small space. In the low light, he could make out that Ankh had a black eye, but no further injuries were as obvious as Shingo’s. 

“After you pulled that little stunt, they threatened to finish you off if I didn’t cooperate,” he answered.

“So you helped them anyway? Ankh--”

“Shut up! I just didn’t want to make that brute of a woman make that face.”

Shingo smirked. “So you do care.”

“It doesn’t matter. Nothing does.” The fire had gone back out of his voice as quickly as it had come.

“Sure it does. We’re family after all,” Shingo made another try at sitting up. This time he had better success. Even if his head was cloudy and his vision swimming. Yeah, that was probably a severe concussion. He leaned back against a shelving unit.

“Do you even have any idea where we are? This is an artifacts vault. It’s a sealed environment. And the museum is closed tomorrow. We can’t get a signal out on our phones. We’re going to die in here.”

“No way!” Shingo blurted. He started to stand up.

“Don’t do anything strenuous, you’ll kill us faster,” Ankh told him.

Shingo wasn’t really listening. He held his arm against his chest and gave the door a couple light shoves with his shoulder.

“That door is a half meter of solid steel. Four 20 centimeter rods sink into it on either side when the lock is fully engaged.”

“How do you know all that?” Shingo asked in disbelief.

“It was partially funded by the Kougami Foundation. On specs recommended by their newest security consultant,” he opened his arms wide as though he were accepting a round of applause. 

“You did?” Shingo sat back down, less than a foot from Ankh this time.

“He told you it was this or a prison cell, right? I have to stick to it or I go back.”

“What you did tonight was going to put you in jail anyway!” 

“I wasn’t helping them!” Ankh finally admitted.

“He was talking about giving you a cut! I may have a concussion, but I’m not a moron.”

“Kazari was trying to bring me back in. He’s a backstabber that thought I was just going to forget that he was the whole reason I got busted in the first place! They all gave me up! I should have picked prison. It would have been easier to escape than this…” The anger faded out of his voice as his rant went on. 

The irony of being trapped and probably dying in a place of his own design was not lost on Shingo. But he held back pointing it out. Ankh was a smart guy. He was probably way ahead of him on that, anyway.

They were silent for a few minutes, until Ankh spoke up again. “Fine. I’ll ask. How did you find out what was going on?”

Shingo pulled his phone out of his pants pocket. “I got our phones mixed up. I saw the message on your lock screen.” This was not the first time the two iPhones in squishy black cases had gotten crossed for one another. Shingo had accidentally taken Ankh’s phone with him to work on more than one occasion.

“Tche,” Ankh replied. “He wanted me to go double-agent. Kougami pays better than that measly 10%,” he grumbled.

“One of us needs to get a new case when we get out of here,” Shingo said with a smirk.

“Were you listening? We’re stuck. What did that blow to the head do to your brain?” He frowned and glared in a direction where Shingo wasn’t in his line of vision. Shingo couldn’t help but chuckle a little. “And now you’re laughing about it. The air isn’t that thin yet.”

“So you showed up here all by yourself to stop them? Why didn’t you tell me, or Kougami, or the police?” Shing asked. Changing the subject to something he could actually apply brainpower to.

“Because they were going to hurt you! And Hina!” He suddenly looked like he hadn’t wanted to blurt that out. 

“Hina and I only got this far by supporting each other. She did that for me when I was studying for the detective’s exam, and I’m doing the same for her for fashion design school. You’re not alone anymore, Ankh.”

Ankh glared at the wall directly across from him as though it had done him some great personal insult. He looked sour, but then again, that was typical for him. Normally such talk would have sent him storming out of the room, but he didn’t have that escape now. Instead, he pulled his legs up to his chest. Ah, that was it. He was scared. Well, that was only natural.

Speaking of, why wasn’t Shingo worried? This was easily the worst thing that had happened since his parents had died. Well, there were plenty of hours left for the panic to set in. No sense in coming around to that point too fast.

There was another long period of silence. How long? Shingo had no idea. He had no concept of how long they had been in here at this point. “Thank you,” Ankh finally said.

Shingo didn’t need to ask him what he was saying thank you for. “Just like I keep telling you. You’re family.”

Ankh unfolded his legs and just remained quiet. 

This time, it did not last.

The lights inside the vault suddenly came on full. The door started making noises while their eyes struggled to grow accustomed to the new brightness. Ankh still hurried to his feet and got on his guard.

The first head that peeked around the slowly-swinging door was Shintaro Gotou, captain of the Kougami Foundation’s private security detail. “They’re alive,” he said, with a finger on his earpiece. He had clearly come ready for a fight with that body armor and rifle slung all around him.

“How did you know we were here?” and “How the hell did you find us?” the twins asked together. They then looked at each other. Ankh was mortified, but Shingo was amused.

“You told Hina to tell us you were coming here,” Gotou replied, looking confusedly at Shingo.

Shingo looked bewildered for a moment. But then he remembered. He pulled his phone out again and looked at his text messages. “Oh! I did!” He held the message out triumphantly for Gotou and Ankh to see. 

“You brain-damaged moron! Let me through!” Ankh roared, pushing his way past Gotou and through the door. 

“Is there something else wrong other than your arm, Izumi?” Gotou asked. 

“They hit him with giant carving,” Ankh yelled from the hall outside. “He needs a hospital.” Shingo just nodded to confirm.

“And Ankh wasn’t helping rob this place,” Shingo asserted. “I’ll testify to that if I have to.”

“Don’t worry, Izumi. We know. We have all of his communications monitored. The Kougami Foundation takes steps to insure all of its assets from every eventuality.”

“I see…” Shingo replied.

“We’ll talk more at the hospital,” Gotou told him. He started pulling the door open wide enough for the paramedics.

“Good. I’m looking forward to it. Just one thing. Tell Ankh I said thanks.”

"What for?”

“He’ll know.”


End file.
